Yesterday was the innaugural Kaibab Monster Cross. The most fitting term in the title is monster…
15 salty enduro vets showed up, 2 finished. The re-route added considerable mileage and difficulty, and I added 8 miles and 1000′ of climbing just for good measure. The GPS only works if you use it wisely, doh! As best I can tell, the official course was 135 miles with about 16,500′ climbing. It’s funny that my total mileage should fall at 143 cause in the last 2-3 hours I was getting the strong impression the route was on par with KTR as far is difficulty. Except the KTR has more water availability. Flashback to the Paradox multiple times…
We were all a bit surprised, but everyone rode smart and relatively conservative as we all knew the re-route was unkown territory. Everyone had a great time, finished happy, the cameraderie was a lot of fun. Everyone camped at the same spot so we got to relive our day’s adventure for a bit more before snoring became rampant. Dave and Meredith did a killer job working with the FS, made cool trophies (!), brought ribs to go with my bbq grill and cake to finish it off, yum!
Highlight of the day was an 18 mile section of the AZT with views of the east rim of the Grand Canyon. Trail conditions and views were off the charts, nicest chunck of trail I’ve put tire to in AZ. Put this event on your calendar for ’08, it’s full of scenery, wildlife, good trail, challenges, and more challenges just for good measure. One of the coolest parts of the race? Staging from our campsite and getting to know everyone after the event. Nobody opted for a lodging option (not sure there are any close?) so it was one big happy family.
It took me a bit over 12 hours, Brian aka Donkey finished a bit over 13. Everyone rode 12 hours or more so a big day for everyone. Those roads we all thought were gonna be smooth and fast, well, weren’t! Roadblocks awaited some as well in the form of Mormon reinactment parties. The report I got was “a sea of humanity” as one of the Matt’s was flying downhill as he came around a bend, there they were, 200 folks dressed like pioneers covering every bit of road.
Yep, we had a lot to talk about over dinner.